Traditionally, a program or application needs to be installed onto a computer hard drive and permanently connect with the registry in order to function correctly. Portable programs and applications do not need to to be installed nor permanently connect to the computer's registry. Of course there's more technial jargon but they are unnecessary details at this point.

They usually have a smaller footprint (small size like 1Mb instead of 3Mb), are slimmed down from the original program or application (some, not all) and in many cases, they can run off a USB Drive, memory stick, thumb drive, etc. etc... thus they are "portable".

Some of these "portables" do not leave a traces of their existence behind either (in the sense of personal or specifically identifiable information).

For example, I have a Portable Fire Fox web browser on a thumb dive. It has some favorite web sites that I visit, passwords and other personal data. I use it at home and then take it with me to a friend's house and use it there also. Once I detach the thumb drive, the computer forgets it was there in a matter of speaking. So, if my friend gets his computer hacked, there won't be any personal data from that thumb drive found.

Here's a "portables" web site to get you started:

==> http://portableapps.com/

Last edited by AKMARK5000 on Wed Feb 29, 2012 11:01 am; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : Updated Information)